A Thousand Miles
by beanrox
Summary: Erik explains, denies and sidetracks while on an important mission. His kids aren't happy. Of course, neither is everyone else.


**Author's Note:** Not sure where this came from. I kinda knew that Magda exsisted - or, you know, _used to_, or whatever - but I'd never really thought about her till I started writing this. And I figure, Magneto's got to have met her family, right? I don't know much about her family, or his, but if anyone does, I'd appreciate any knowledge you could give me!

Words: 831, Warnings: None, Characters: Erik, Charles, Jamie

* * *

"Professor, uh...", Jamie paused, head poking into the bald telepath's room. The small boy looked nervous, and Charles could her shuffling and some muted words of encouragement coming from behind the multiplying mutant.

"Erik is here?", the professor surmised. One didn't have to be a telepath to know the look Jamie had on his face - one just had to have been friends with Erik Lensherr, aka Magneto, for over twenty years. The confusion at his guess made Charles pause, however.

"Who?", Jamie asked, frowning at the unfamiliar name. _'Ah, yes - I'd forgotten they don't know him by his real name._', Xavier thought to himself.

"Magneto to _you_, boy." There were sounds of gasping, jumping, scrambling, and a few pained 'ow!'s as the white haired Master of Magnetism made his presence known - directly behind the group of none-too-discreetly eavesdropping mutants.

"Gah! Um, right. I'll just be...on my way..." Even Jamie looked surprised, and a little awkward as his cohorts slunk away quickly. Soon the two men were alone, the doors closing easily behind Erik as he entered the room.

"Was that really necessary, Erik? You've probably given Jamie and all the rest of my students nightmares now.", Charles opined, an eyebrow rising, tone dry and slightly rebuking. _'Not that that he had ever worked on him._', mused the telepath. _'Not since college and our marriages._'

"Oh, yes - because _I'm_ the worst thing they've ever seen.", the white haired man replied, voice as dour as it ever was - in that same familiar tone of dry sarcasm that the telepath had gotten so used to over the years. And, also something familiar to the bald man, he had to concede that perhaps his old friend had a point with some of the students; mostly the older ones. On the other hand, however...

"To some of them, thank God, yes.", Xavier replied. For a moment, he couldn't help but muse on the ones who would think of their arch-nemesis visiting their headmaster as something from a fairy tale, in comparison with some of the things they had been through. It seemed that the magnetic controlling man had been thinking the same things, for the silence dragged on a few minutes before either one spoke again.

"I'm sure your children were just surprised to see me without..." Erik trailed off, uncertain of how to phrase his usual ensemble of clothes. The phrase 'bucket head' kept floating through his mind, and he shot Charles an annoyed look. The man looked a little sheepish, and cleared his throat.

"Your regalia?", he supplied, as if to make up for his recent little joke.

"Ah...yes.", Erik nodded, if only for lack of better term. 'Regalia' - fancy; perhaps a little bit high-horsed, but he had heard worse when people referred to the 'capes and cowls' he knew. And long those lines... "I'm sure you are wondering why I am here, and not as Magneto.", Erik said; stated, not asked, because even after all these years, he could read Charles' mind just as well as the telepath could read his. So it was no surprise when Xavier nodded, fingers steepling in that familiar gesture he had adopted.

"Yes, I was rather - surprised when you dropped by, Erik.", Charles admitted, dark brown eyes holding the magnetism masters' light blue ones.

"I..." And now the white haired man felt himself pausing, his eyes closing for a moment as he tried to find a way to phrase his request. At last, he came up with one. "It's about Magda."

The telepaths' students would have been surprised at the look of surprise - and then pain, sympathy and understanding that passed over the headmasters' face. "Is there anything I can do --?", he offered, leaning forward.

"There is one thing. My children...I don't want them knowing. I want them to be_ safe_, Charles - and I don't know how long this could take. Their friends..." Erik trailed off, tone derisive. He obviously wasn't convinced that the duo's friends could take care of their own. "Well, I don't want to leave them with the Brotherhood or my Alcolytes."

And Xavier, in understanding - he wouldn't trust his team to run the mansion for more than a day, if that - and gave his old friend a probing look, although he conceeded to the unspoken question as if it were obvious he would let his arch-enemies' children sleep in his house. And it was. "I can watch over them; the mansion has dozens of spare bedrooms.", the bald man said, tilting his head slightly to one side.

For once, Magneto nodded, pleased and thankful. But then Charles pressed on. They both knew Magda was dead; passed on the very night the white-haired boy and the raven-haired girl the two had been speaking of were born. "But what are you going to go do, Erik? What is it that is so important that you ask me to help you, after all of these long years?"

It is a fair question, the master of magnetism knows. One he would have asked Charles, if the man's son hadn't been...well, that was another story altogether. For now, he could sense his old comrade's curiosity. So Erik Lensherr answered, baritone unusually soft as he turned away slightly and rested his head in his old, scarred hands.

"I wanted to visit Magda's family."


End file.
